Blue Sphere Foundation
Working to safeguard the planet’s oceans, halting the destruction of threatened marine species and habitats. Join us in the fight for healthy seas. 🐳🐢
http://bluespherefoundation.org/

🎉 today we have reason to celebrate! #repost@cristinamittermeier
・・・
the canadian government just announced more than $12 million in new funding for research aimed at protecting b.c.'s endangered southern resident killer whales. their numbers have been declining, from 89 whales in 2000 to a mere 76 today. their future is uncertain as the lower coast of bc continues to industrialize. projects like the proposed expansion of the kinder morgan pipeline will increase noise and ship traffic and the overfishing of foundation fish, like herring, has had an impact on salmon populations on which marine life, including orcas depend.
#turningthetide with sea_legacy

Have you heard about @misool.resort’s new 'day with the rangers' programme?
thanks to the ongoing vigilance of @misool.foundation’s local ranger patrol, biomass has increased on their reefs by 250% over six years. spend an afternoon getting to know the team responsible for this incredible change in our ecosystem. you'll visit their ranger stations, climb to a spectacular viewpoint, participate in beach clean-ups, check on turtle nests, and tour the 300,000-acre misool marine reserve.
all proceeds from this tour are donated to our registered indonesian charity, misool foundation.
you can book this experience, and many more, during your stay.
misool: so much more than diving. #ecotourism#indonesianoceanpride

Being an ocean activist isn't as 'glorious' as people may think. conservation can be lonely, extremely frustrating and often just plain depressing. we don't talk about this side of our work often - it's much easier to focus on the positive and inspirational stuff. here's a journal entry from campaign manager @candace.crespi written on our "guardians of raja ampat" tour a few years ago:
as we made our way towards the village of rutum, we came across something on the surface of the water – a dead, delaminated hawksbill turtle. the top layer of its shell was sliced off and removed, the most recent victim of the endangered species trade. while filming in hainan, our team observed countless numbers of endangered hawksbill turtles lining the walls and shelves of shops. we jumped in the water to gather footage in hopes of help people understand how consumerism is linked to species extinction.
as we got face to face with the animal, tears quickly filled my mask. poachers had cut into and peeled the external laminate of its shell; its eyes were open but void of life. there is no rational explanation for this – the only word that comes to mind is exploitation. this is the reality of the endangered species trade. turtles are completely helpless; they have no defensive mechanisms other than their shells, which can be effective against toothed predators, but not against man. a sharp instrument was used to peel the outer layer, bit by bit, until the entire outer coating was gone. the harvested elements would be shipped off somewhere else in the world to create ornamental combs and glasses. but why did they take the external laminate and discard the rest like garbage? years ago someone died after eating a hawksbill.
in each of our own ways we are exploiting. for remote communities that have very little, if someone is going to be an exploiter, their natural resources are all that’s available – that’s their way to make money. it's vital to create livelihood alternatives, making it more valuable to keep that turtle alive than to extract it.

If we aspire to address the critical threats and restore the health of world’s reefs, reversing the precipitous decline in sharks and other predator species, and rebuilding fish populations, we cannot look to the current condition of most of our reefs as a reasonable baseline for a healthy system. instead we must consider what these reef systems looked like before they were so degraded, choked in algae, and stripped of all large predators and most commercially-valuable fish species. we must remind our communities of what thriving reef systems actually look like, with a rich diversity of corals and a healthy balance in predator-prey species, and inspire them through imagery and storytelling, that such reef systems exist even today within our oceans. #turningthetide@shawnheinrichs@vulcaninc@bluespherefoundation@racingextinction@oceanicpreservationsociety@sea_legacy

#repost@shawnheinrichs // ”i remember descending down to the ‘reef’ and being struck by an overwhelming sense of loss and despair. 😔 everything i knew and loved from my childhood was missing. the reefs were decaying and covered in algae. large fish and sharks were nowhere to be found. the cloudy, muted-grey landscape of crumbling reef structures reminded me of a post-apocalyptic war scene. how had it all come to this in such a short period of time?
i decided then and there that i would make it my mission to search out and document those last great and thriving places in the oceans, and one day use those stories to help turn the tide of destruction.” #turningthetide#racingextinction@vulcaninc@misool.resort@sea_legacy

🐢 even in the caribbean, where over 80% of the reefs had been lost (catlin scientific survey, 2013), there are reefs that refused to yield and stood tall in defiance.
by showcasing examples of successful conservation and management of reef systems and shark populations in key regions across the oceans, we can engage wider and more diverse audiences to support critically needed global reef and shark conservation initiatives. each of these model reef systems, from the caribbean sea, across the pacific islands, to the coral triangle, host some of the highest diversity and greatest abundance of species for their respective regions, with relatively intact reef structures, abundance of sharks and other predators, and dense schools of other fish species. and above all, they are inspiring examples of how a variety of conservation strategies can be employed to safeguard fragile marine eco-systems, even in the face of often-daunting threats.
our hope is, that by presenting what truly thriving marine ecosystems should look like, we can all be inspired to raise the bar higher, take more proactive steps to conserve what is left, and choose to make significant course-corrections to help the world’s reef systems. @shawnheinrichs@vulcaninc@racingextinction@oceanicpreservationsociety

If we aspire to truly address the critical threats facing our oceans today and to restore the health of the world’s reefs, reversing the precipitous decline in sharks and other predatory species and rebuilding fish populations, we cannot look to the current condition of most of our reefs as a baseline reference for a healthy system. instead we must consider what these reef systems looked like before they were so severely degraded, suffocated in silt, overgrown by algae, and emptied of most large predators and commercially-valuable fish species. we must look to those places where people have taken a stand for their oceans, and in the face of ever-mounting pressure to recklessly extract their valuable marine resources, have refused to yield, choosing instead to safeguard their marine systems for the good of nature and their communities. we must remind ourselves of what thriving reef systems actually look like, with a rich diversity of corals and a healthy balance in predator-prey species. we must celebrate that such reef systems still exist, despite the destruction. we must inspire new policy, new practice and a new understanding of what could be again, if we have the foresight and political will to help our oceans recover from a century of degradation. @shawnheinrichs@vulcaninc

Conservation in action! 🌊💪
within raja ampat in indonesia, the misool marine reserve is experiencing an astounding recovery of reefs, reef fish and reef sharks. what was once a bastion for shark finners, dynamite fishermen, turtle poachers, longliners and gillnetters, is now a fully protected marine reserve through the steadfast enforcement of misool's community rangers. marine protected areas can work - raja ampat is clearly proof of that with ~250% increase in biomass! @shawnheinrichs@vulcaninc@misool.foundation@racingextinction#indonesianoceanpride

Meet the captain of our ship (executive director), ocean lover, and super-mom @denielle129! denielle sachs is an impact strategist, organizational leader, and coalition builder who has spent the last two decades working on some of the world’s most pressing societal challenges. she is founder of the tembo groupand previously served as the director of social impact for mckinsey & company. we are so lucky to have her on our team! #womensday#iwd2018#bluespherefoundation

If we aspire to address the critical threats and restore the health of world’s reefs, reversing the precipitous decline in sharks and other predator species, and rebuilding fish populations, we cannot look to the current condition of most of our reefs as a reasonable baseline for a healthy system. instead we must consider what these reef systems looked like before they were so degraded, choked in algae, and stripped of all large predators and most commercially-valuable fish species. we must remind our communities of what thriving reef systems actually look like, with a rich diversity of corals and a healthy balance in predator-prey species, and inspire them through imagery and storytelling, that such reef systems exist even today within our oceans. @oceanicpreservationsociety@shawnheinrichs@vulcaninc@racingextinction@sea_legacy

Marine protected areas aren't just 'paper parks.' a new study from the @globalfinprint project reveals that when we enforce these areas, sharks can recover surprisingly quickly--giving us new hope for the fate of sharks. http://vlcn.fyi/9rk030immzp@vulcaninc *please note the bait bag is out of frame in the 2004 video.

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